It was a sign – the largest harvest moon in two decades that appeared in the sky on the night the three musicians first met, and the trio harkened back to this rare celestial occurrence when they chose their name. Since that time, Trio Céleste’s star has been rising. Called “one of the best young chamber groups around today,” by Philip Setzer of the Emerson Quartet, the group has won prestigious competitions and awards, performed worldwide, commissioned and recorded new works, given entrepreneurship seminars, and founded a progressive chamber music organization in southern California.

Honor and tribute are themes that inspire the works on this concert, their first with UChicago Presents. American composer Pierre Jalbert dedicated his eclectic and dramatic music to Mother Theresa. Sergei Rachmaninoff memorialized Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky in his trio with musical notation and forms that harken the elder composer’s music. Coming late in life to chamber music, Tchaikovsky wrote only one piano trio, upon request by his benefactress Nadezhda von Meck. He dedicated the passionate and lyrical work, which he described as symphonic in nature, to his close friend, the pianist Nikolai Rubinstein.Click here to visit the University of Chicago Presents website.